


Swimming Lessons

by Fangu



Series: Sun over New Bodhum [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Genre: F/M, Loss of Virginity, Romance, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-12
Updated: 2012-03-12
Packaged: 2017-11-01 20:57:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangu/pseuds/Fangu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A wedding is the perfect opportunity to hook up. Warning - this is cheesy, but hopefully a bit cute as well. Set sorta post one of the XIII-2 Paradox Endings, no game spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An itch worth scratching

**Author's Note:**

> Changed rating to M for drinking and reference to sex.
> 
> Beware that English is my second language. Apologize for the stiff language in this one. It takes a while for my head to 'switch languages' so when I'm at a place I'm easily distracted by people speaking my 1st, my English (2nd) is affected. That happened a lot the weekend I was writing this story.

As the deep red sun was setting into the golden sea of New Bodhum, Serah, dressed in her finest light blue velvet evening gown, finally gave Snow her ‘I do’.

It was a simple ceremony, with the husband-and-wife-to-be standing on the pier facing each other, the joyful spectators gathered in a half circle in the sand below them. Everyone was dressed their best for the occasion, which didn’t differ much from their daily outfits save for some borrowed attires and newly made accessories. However, the best looking addition to their appearances anyway was their smiles.

Lebreau had given up trying to hide her goofy smile. (She hadn’t given up on keeping the tears back though.) The weather was too nice and the people too shiny to bother keeping up with her rough tomboy appearance. So what if she gave the boys a reason to pick on her later – just this once she’d be a romantic fool and let herself be moved by this religious hokum that really shouldn’t matter to people, but that she had to admit that now, standing here with the rest of the spectators, somehow made sense.

Her eyes drifted from the silk of Serah’s dress down to the bride’s sister, Lightning, who was standing with her back to Lebreau, right below Serah. Lightning was wearing a gorgeous one-strap dress that matched Serah’s.  Lebreau thought she’d never see the day, and judging by the looks sent her way when she entered the ceremony a little while ago, neither had anyone else.

Lebreau herself was wearing a short skirt and a dark purple one-shoulder top she’d traded with one of the village girls. No reason going all overboard, now was there.

Lebreau sighed as she admired the physicality of Lightning’s bare shoulder and back. She might be wearing a dress, and she might have asked people to start calling her Claire instead of her soldier pseud _Lightning_ , but underneath the clothing she was still a Lieutenant, and she probably would keep that part with her no matter what.

It was shortly after they’d gotten back to New Bodhum that Serah and Snow shared the news with their friends: They wanted to be wed as soon as possible, and they wanted the whole village to take part in the celebration. Not just their village, but anyone who wanted to come would be welcomed.

The villagers embraced the idea. The news spread fast, and soon everyone was joining in on the preparations. Serah and Snow wanted the ceremony to take place already on the tenth day of their return, and there was much to do. NORA had been the key organization in the planning, delegating tasks for the villagers, such as fetching ingredients for the food, cooking, doing decorations, hammering together benches and tables where the food would be shared, travelling to a faraway village to get fireworks and setting up a trade station where people could trade clothes and accessories to doll themselves up.

Serah had confessed to Lebreau it was all Snow’s idea. The travelers had been on their way back to New Bodhum when during one of the breaks Snow had subtly pulled Serah aside and suggested the idea to her, and Serah had more than agreed to the idea.

Lebreau giggled, trying to play out the scene in her head. She believed Serah and Snow to be incredibly silly people when just the two of them were together. She imagined them to have several pet names for each other and that they liked talking to each other with stupid voices like only dumb people in love would do, so in her head Serah’s response had been something like “oh darling _bearest_ that would be simply _amazing_ ”. She could up with ten responses that were just as silly, and each one of them just as amusing.

That thought had her stupid smile turn even stupider. Seeing them on that pier holding hands like this was so utterly _aww_. She couldn’t imagine two people being more suited for each other. She was glad things had finally ended well. There had been losses, but Lebreau’s closest friends were still here. The thought of a peaceful chapter where their only worries would be petty, everyday problems was so appealing to her. In about a year (or, when she thought about it, it could easily be just half a year) she’d probably be holding the result of Serah and Snows pet name sharing, and everything would be all boring and loud and nice. This peace and dullness was very welcome indeed.

The priest they’d managed to call from a neighboring village was now saying the final prayers for the couple, blessing them with happiness and other blah. Lebreau was zoning out a little. This prayer was exactly as long and boring as all other prayers, so she started scouting the crowd instead.

Her boys were all here.

She’d known Snow for ages, and now he was about to be wed; his huge frame hovering over the tiny Serah, now laughing softly as she helped him dry away a tear.

Yuj, tall, skinny and fashionably dressed as always, looked so spellbound by the whole scenario Lebreau almost started laughing.

Maqui, the youngest, and to make things worse: the shortest, was looking slightly bored, and Lebreau imagined he was fantasizing either about the new bike he was building, or the hot blonde in the sandals standing in front of him.

Gadot, the eldest, guarding the ceremony like a true tribal chief, was looking peaceful, content; the calmest she’d seen him in years. She was glad to see it.

Her eyes glanced over to the new face in the crowd of boys: Noel, the boy from the future Lightning had sent to Serah to help saving the future. Lebreau had only met him a couple of times, and the first time embarrassingly he’d saved her life, a fact that made her left foot itch.

Looking at Noel always made her sigh contently. He wasn’t a sorry sight, that’s for sure.

Lebreau noticed he was zoning out a bit as well: Instead of looking at the couple being blessed, he was looking at the sea, though he was doing it very subtle.

The pretty future boy had switched out parts of his future boy clothes: He was still wearing the same shirt, but a lot of the tribal accessories were gone, replaced with a simple looking belt more of this time. Lebreau wondered if this was a courtesy, or if he was actually trying to fit in with the rest of them, meaning he was going to stay. There had been too much to keep their minds on for anyone to even bother asking Serah about it.

Lebreau knew the two of them had grown a unique bond during the last weeks. Lebreau knew boys well, in fact Serah was the only girlfriend she had; but even though she knew and cared for Snow, Maqui, Yuj and Gadot like they were her own brothers, she still didn’t have the bond with them Serah had with Noel. It puzzled her, and she was pondering over it again right now, and damn, her left foot was itchy.

She started sliding her foot around in her shoe, which she knew never did anything to help with the itch, but that never stopped her from trying. The twitching movements and the itch made her pull a face, and she was biting her lip and sort of half closing her right eye when hot future boy turned and looked at her. Lebreau straightened her face, gave him her best _yes I was doing something, none of your business, move along_ look, and his curious look turned into a smile. He was still smiling when he turned his attention back on the ceremony.

That damn foot was itchy as ever, and she couldn’t exactly take off her shoe and scratch it while _aaaah_ ing like she wanted, so she had to stand still like an obedient school girl and listen to the preacher finishing his prayer about eternal love, devotion and going to heaven. He finally finished his blessing, declared the husband and wife as wed, and as Serah and Snow’s lips met, everyone cheered.

“Finally, this sun has made me thirsty!” Gadot exclaimed as they walked back to the NORA house.


	2. Little paper umbrellas

The dinner was really nice, with lots of good food, wine, speeches and spontaneous breaking out into song. It had all the ingredients of a picture perfect wedding dinner, save for a couple of crude jokes that had the priest pretending he was fine hearing them when clearly he was not, and a speech from Gadot to Snow that was bordering on totally unsuitable. But Serah was laughing, and Lebreau later overheard her thanking Gadot for revealing parts of a past she knew Snow was hiding but refused to talk about. Also, Yuj got a little drunk and decided it was too hot to keep his shirt on – which wouldn’t be anything special if he hadn’t decided he wanted everyone to actually see him taking it off.

Lebreau had signed up for bar duty, so when the youngest and oldest and dullest guests had left, they turned the music up and Lebreau got to work. Gadot was in the bar with her, doing his best on trying to convince Lightning into drinking the finest (strongest) of his brown spirits, which worked for a little while until Lightning’s face was slightly flushed and her teeth showing and she was laughing at Gadot telling him she knew exactly what he was trying to do and to give it a rest. (Of course Lightning did this in four words or less.) Lebreau knew this wasn’t the last they’d seen of that; Gadot was looking delightfully determined and of course totally innocent about it.

People were dancing and flirting and sharing old war stories, and the atmosphere was so good Lebreau was sure it was the nicest time she’d had in many years. Serah and Snow were talking to an old couple about to pack it in. Over in a corner Hope was talking to his father and Noel. Maqui was doing his best to impress a couple of teenage girls, which was so cute Lebreau could watch it all night.

She was drying a wine glass with a towel when she saw Noel approaching to the bar. He was swaying more than usual, and he was wearing an unfamiliar smirk.

“Ahoy there soldier, what can we bring you to poison you up further?” Gadot said. “I’m sure Lebreau here has some nasty experimental licorice stuff going on for you, or what, darling”, he continued and slapped Lebreau on the nearest ass cheek, like he did every now and then when he’d had a few.

Lebreau shot him a look and turned to the pretty face, which had now taken a seat at the bar. Shortly after, Gadot shouted something loud and welcoming to someone new to the party entering the room, and soon after he was gone from the bar.

Lebreau sighed and turned to Noel. He was resting his chin on his arm, gazing out the large opening leading outside, eyes narrow, smirk seemingly glued to his face.

“So, what can I get you?”

His reaction time slowed down by seconds, he finally tilted his dazed eyes towards her.

“Drinks like these weren’t common around my time. I think I’ve had enough.” A wise decision from a first time drinker, Lebreau the barmaid thought.

“Water.” She smiled at him. “With little fruits in them. Maybe even an umbrella.”

He laughed, showing a lot of teeth. “Umbrella? In a drink?”

Damn. Cute.

“You’ve really missed out, you know.” She mixed up something random and served him a glass with three different sized stupid paper umbrellas and a huge, purple straw.

He looked at the glass in amazement. “Your time is so strange.” He lifted the straw and top umbrella trying to reveal the actual drinking content of his drink. “I didn’t have much time to think about the differences before, but now it’s making me curious.” He poked around with the straw, moving the ice cubes with large interest. “I mean take this whole wedding stuff as an example. Snow and Serah don’t live with each other, they’re get married first. I talked to a woman a few hours ago that has a kid, but she’s not married _or_ living with a guy.” He paused. “She did seem to want a man to live with though.”

Lebreau swallowed a laugh.

Noel went on. “...still she had a necklace on. Serah and Snow have necklaces.” He studied the umbrella, put it down on the bar and picked up the next one, which was pink. “And you and Gadot live together, but Serah said you aren’t married. And you don’t have necklaces.” He looked at the pink umbrella and sighed.

Lebreau choked up. “What?” she said so loud Noel looked at her with a reaction time not matching his condition.

“…what?” he replied.

Lebreau started laughing so hard Noel had a worried look on his face.

“The day I marry Gadot is the day… you know what, never mind I even started that sentence” she laughed. Noel’s confusion visibly increased. Normally he was good at not showing his reactions, but the booze had softened him. “You two aren’t going to get married? Why… do some couples simply choose not to?”

“I’m not with Gadot” she said a little breathless.

Noel was still looking confused. “But…” he started, couldn’t seem to finish.

“But… what?”

“He…” Noel’s face now had a hint of frustration. Speaking in detail about stuff like this was clearly not something they did in his futuristic tribe, and the booze wasn’t helping him out either.

Suddenly Lebreau had a flash of enlightenment.

“Oh. OH! That’s just something he does.”

Noel looked at her in disbelief, then pushed away his glass of fruity water. “I think I’d like that licorice stuff you’ve got now. I don’t get it. I don’t get anything.”

Lebreau cocked her head. She was curious. “Guess some boundaries are different in your tribe.” His eyes lifted to meet hers again, now with a glint of understanding.

“Yes. Yeah.” He chewed on it for a second. “That makes sense now.” Another pause. “Huh.”

Lebreau looked at him. Looked at his broad shoulders, his muscular arms, his strong jaw. She now knew what this meant. Serah had told her Noel had been a young hunter in his tribe, that he didn’t have a family of his own. Clearly, in his tribe, marriage was a huge deal, probably a requirement to get physically involved.

She shifted her feet. Swallowed dryly. Felt a tingle in her stomach. She normally didn’t have problems yapping on with the people sitting at her bar. Now she was coming up with fifty things to say, but not being able to narrow it down to just one.

Noel didn’t notice her articulation challenges; he’d gone back to gazing at the sky outside.

“Your sky is the same as mine. It’s so strange that so much else is different.”

Lebreau cleared her throat. “It’s not _that_ much different. Just… certain things.”

He smiled, “One thing though is a big difference. You have the sea. We never had anything like that, or at least I never saw it. It’s so scary but appealing at the same time. I mean where does it end? Or, I _know_ where it ends, but it’s like my mind can’t begin to understand it. How big it is. It’s so strange.”

“I take a swim every morning. I’ve always done that. I grew up by the sea,” she said.

“Swimming, huh” he said. “Is it hard? Can I learn?”

“Of course you can. I mean it does take some time. You have to be patient – maybe start out with just getting the feel of the water.” She leaned back. “Then, when you trust you’re safe, you just have to try it. Once you get the hang of it, it’s wonderful. You’ll never forget how it’s done. After a while it just feels as natural as breathing. You don’t think anymore, you just… do it.”

He looked back at her, his gaze a little blurry. “That sounds nice.”

Lebreau felt a bit lightheaded as she replied _oh_ _it is_.


	3. Testing the waters

The night was finally coming to an end. Only the core was still partying: Gadot was pimping away on a whiskey bottle he was sharing with Lightning; they were sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall and obviously talking about something really important. Snow and Serah had retired. The few others that were left were standing or sitting just chatting, a couple of others were slow dancing with goofy smiles on their faces.

Lebreau was cleaning up the bar. She wouldn’t bother to gather up all of the glasses, but she was awake enough to take care of some of the mess. After their conversation, Noel had sat at the bar with her a little bit more. They’d been chatting about anything and nothing, but mostly he’d been quiet, just looking at the sea, letting the toxics slowly slip.

Maqui had finally caught a girl in his net – not one of the two he’d been chatting up previously, but a well fed and slightly drunk third one. They were now making out right outside. Most people inside couldn't see them, Lebreau and Noel could. “They’re not married, are they now” Noel had said, Lebreau shaking her head. “And most probably they’re not going to be”. Noel had shot her a strange look that yet again had her thinking there was more going on in that head of his than he gave off.

She'd put away what she decided was the last batch of glasses, gotten a coffee and walked outside to sit on the stairs for a little – she usually did this after closing up the bar, and even though there were still people inside, she didn’t see why she’d do anything different this time. The stars were bright, the air warm and clear, the coffee good – and she was still feeling awake. It had been a good night. She felt warm.

She heard footsteps and braced for a drunken _go to bed_ -lecture from Gadot, but it wasn’t his voice that started talking.

“No more umbrellas for the people?” the voice said. Its owner took a seat beside her on the stairs.

She could smell a light hint of musk. Instinctively she took an extra deep breath.

She turned and looked at him. His face was relaxed, his eyes shining. She felt a little dizzy.

“Nope. No more umbrella dealing for the night.” Short pause, then – “People will have to get their umbrellas elsewhere. You know... if they want their umbrella fix.”

_Gods Lebreau, shut up._

He seemed to have sobered up.  He sat with his arms stretched over his knees, looking at the calm sea bathed in moonlight.

He giggled. “Swimming, huh.”

She looked at him. Opened her mouth, shut it. Opened it again.

“What?” he said.

“You wanna go?”

“You mean now?”

She shrugged.

He thought about it for a few seconds. And then - “let’s go.”

“All right”, she said, put her cup down, and minutes later she was throwing her nice, purple top away in the sand, kicking off her shoes, and unbuttoning her skirt. In the corner of her eye she could see Noel slowly getting rid of his shirt, then starting unbuckling his belt, peaking at her when he thought she wasn’t noticing, carefully copying her. When she was down to her underwear, Lebreau walked towards the water’s edge. She let the waves wash over her feet and kept walking until the water reached her by the waist. She could hear Noel wading in behind her.

She turned around. He was taking it slow, testing the water, putting his arms into it – but he was clearly enjoying the feel of it. She sank down to where just her head was above the surface. He was still several arms lengths closer to land than her.  He worked his way towards her, making sure his feet could still reach the sand. He was obviously enjoying himself.

They were just playing around; she swam around him in circles, she dived under and tickled him. He splashed water at her, picked her up and threw her in the water. She told him about diving, he wanted a demonstration. When she walked towards the edge of the pier to dive where the water was deepest and he couldn’t follow, his eyes following her very closely.

They were close to the pier pillars, only their heads about water, the gap between them shrunk to only a few feet. They were doing nothing sensible with their time save for looking at each other, occasionally splashing water at one another.

“So”, she finally said.

“So”, he repeated.

“I guess you haven’t had many girlfriends.”

Cat was out of the bag.

“There might be some truth to that.”

He moved around a little in the water, pebbles of salty water on his face.

“What about you? Had many boyfriends?”

She hesitated. “There’s been a couple. It’s normal here.”

He nodded. He was clearly chewing on this info, deciding what it meant to him.

“Your ways of doing stuff is so strange. But I guess it’s like… logical. That things are different, I mean.”

“Yeah”, she said.

He paused. Steel blue eyes fixed on her. “I like looking at you.”

Her heart was up to her throat for a split second, then thumping back down. Her blood did an extra lap. Her legs felt heavy.

Why was it that him, who had almost no experience at all, could make _her_ feel like the virgin, when it clearly was the other way around? Was he bullshitting her?

No, he wasn’t a liar. Serah knew him, and she would have let them know if he couldn’t be trusted.

She’d had lots of guys told her she was pretty before, but hearing it from him somehow made it different. She wanted him to like her. And now he’d said he enjoyed looking at her. He made her feel like a teenage girl. He made her feel shiny and new.

“You’re not so bad yourself”, she said. His face beamed in the dark. He looked like he had just been dared. He went for her and shoved her under water.

Then she taught him how to fill his lungs and float on his back. He did fiddle around a bit until he managed to let go and relax. It was new for him having most of his body covered with water like this; also the way his body maneuvered in the water was different than anything else he’d done. Lebreau watched his eyes go glossy as he was looking up at the stars, only hearing the beating of his own heart and the enhanced sound of his own breath. He was savoring this new experience of being afloat under the skies, the stars seemingly so close it was like he was floating in the skies itself.

He looked at her, his eyes shining, his fingers slowly tangling into hers.

The air had grown chilly and they were both getting sleepy. Sitting piggyback on him in the water, she asked if he was up for a swimming lesson, but he said he was more than happy with what they’d shared today, and that there would always be a tomorrow. She squeezed him softly with her arms and whispered she agreed.

They walked out of the water, picked up their clothes and walked back to the stairs. Noel had his clothes in his arms, his hair still wet and ruffled, strands of wet hair clinging to his forehead. “I guess this is good night”, he whispered and squeezed her hand.

There was another 20 minutes until they went for their separate sleeping chambers.


	4. A fish worth catching

The following day brought its share of cleaning up and hung over people. Serah, beaming of joy, thanked Lebreau for her effort five times, the same as she did with everyone else.

Lebreau noticed Lightning fighting to loosen a rope being used to hold up a banner. She was standing on a chair struggling with the thing when Gadot suddenly stood dangerously close to her, probably asking her if she needed help. Lebreau was too far away to hear what they were talking about, but Lightning was actually listening to him and not kicking him in the chest; that was until he came even closer and obviously said something she wasn’t keen on hearing. She sort of looked around to see if anyone had noticed, before pushing him away, getting off the chair and gesticulating that he could take the damn banner down himself. As she was leaving, Lebreau noticed her face had turned a suitable shade of pink while Gadot was watching her huff away with a pleased look on his face.

Later she ran into Gadot while getting a coffee. He was yawning.

“Not much sleep for you then?” she teased, and he flashed her one of his trademark grins, which Lebreau had seen more than a couple of times before, and knew perfectly well what meant.

“Future boy didn’t put out?”

Lebreau just gave him one of her looks, as if to say _I’m not telling_. Gadot just smirked. He knew that in the end Lebreau usually got what Lebreau wanted.

And Lebreau was getting what she wanted. The rest of the day she spent on the edge of the pier with Noel, trying to catch a few of the little fish the NORA gang knew were somewhere in those waters. The fish didn’t bite very well, as usual, but that didn’t bother them much. They were laughing and teasing each other and just talking; talking for hours, about what life had been like when they grew up; about people they had lost and fights they had fought. As the sun was beginning to set they sat in silence, so close they were touching; their bodies smelling of sweat and salt from sitting outside all day, their skin slightly sunburnt.

Noel’s fingers found hers again; striking the inside of her palm, the inside of her arm, making her laugh when his touch tickled her. Then she watched as he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, finger by finger, all the while they were looking at each other with lazy eyes and small smiles on their lips.

They sat with their mouths inches from each other fiddling with each other’s hair, looking at each other, until Noel finally closed the gap and kissed her. Lebreau had a fishing pole in one hand and a man in the other and thought there weren’t many things in life that surpassed this.

Noel wasn’t a skilled kisser, but he was learning fast, and he felt so amazing under her hands, smelt so incredibly good, that she was enjoying this more than many of the experienced boys she’d been with. Plus this was _him_. _Her Noel_.

They didn’t care that the pier was very publicly visible. They did however know that if they were to leave for her room straight away, they wouldn’t get a moment’s peace from Lebreau’s “brothers”. So leaving for her room, Lebreau told Maqui to back off, telling him she knew everything about his drunken behavior with the neighbor girl the other night (Gadot was nowhere to be seen). She told them Noel said he’d take a bath and then go to bed later. It didn’t take long before the tired gossip boys gave up and headed for bed as well.

Minutes later there was a slight tap on Lebreau’s window. She opened it, seeing Noel smiling below her. He climbed in, his skin and shorts still wet, and the moment he was inside, she kissed him, their hands trembling and alive on each other’s skin. She suggested he get out of the wet clothes, he looked at her twice to be sure, and she nodded and grinned, getting under the covers waiting for him. He joined her, his curious and exciting hands on her, not denying themselves the pleasure of exploring her body. Her top came off, her pants came off, everything was touching and kissing and bliss and right before the sun rose again over New Bodhum, Lebreau finally made a man out of him.


End file.
